Wednesday, 11 August 2010

You may have missed this story in last week's Guardian about Spain cutting it's photovoltaic solar panel feed in tariffs by 45%.

The Guardian reports that whilst cuts to solar thermal (hot water) and wind projects were less than anticipated, photovoltaic solar panel installations will bare the brunt of cuts on incentives for new installations.

Indeed, there had been rumours that existing installations would also see some reduction in the tariffs they were on but this does not seem likely to happen.

The Spanish Government are claiming that production costs have fallen and therefore, they shouldn't need to subsidise so much.

It's bad news from a country that has pressing energy problems and had been doing so much to encourage the take up, both privately and local Government levels, of PV solar energy.

The 45% reduction refers to PV ground installations. Large roof-based systems will see a 25% drop with small roof-based systems having a 5% reduction.

This follows similar cuts in both Germany and Italy. Previous uptake, in Germany in particular, had meant a shortage of solar components in the UK.